Asia
Xixi Pictures Sets Its Sights on Building a Global Brand for Chinese TV Drama
China’s Xixi Pictures has arrived at the 61st MIPTV buoyed by a slate of recent successes that have helped the Shanghai-based production house celebrate its fourth anniversary, but the company is nevertheless keen also to share with the international content community what’s on the immediate horizon. Over the past 12 months, Xixi’s development has been […]
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China Box Office: Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘The Boy and The Heron’ Soars to $73M Over Holiday Weekend
Japanese anime master Hayao Miyazaki is revered in China as much as he is anywhere. The 83-year-old filmmaker’s Oscar-winning swan song The Boy and the Heron opened last Wednesday in China to take advantage of the country’s Qingming public holiday and by Sunday it had earned $73 million — more than its totals in both […]
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Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘The Boy and the Heron’ Smashes Box Office Record in China
Japanese anime master Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning swan song The Boy and the Heron has taken flight at China’s box office in a major way. The enigmatic Studio Ghibli hit opened in China on Wednesday and soared to $13.7 million (RMB 99.1 million), nudging aside Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment’s prior box office champ Godzilla x […]
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Song Kang-ho’s Disney+ Series ‘Uncle Samsik’ Gets Release Date
Disney+ has reveled the release date for its ambitious Korean political drama Uncle Samsik, starring Song Kang-ho in his TV series debut. The show will launch with a five-episode premiere on May 15 exclusively on Disney+ internationally and on Hulu in the U.S. The 16-part series will then unfurl in batches of two episodes per […]
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‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ Makes Roaring Start in China
Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire made a suitably thunderous start at China’s theatrical box office Friday. The film had earned about $7 million (RMB 50 million) by 3 p.m. local time in Beijing, according to ticketing service Maoyan. Maoyan currently forecasts the monster movie to earn as much as […]
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‘Shogun’ Star Tadanobu Asano Joins Thai Director Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s Culinary Thriller ‘Morte Cucina’ (Exclusive)
The ever-busy Japanese character actor Tadanobu Asano — currently having a moment as one of the stars of Disney’s hit samurai series Shōgun — has joined the cast of Thai director Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s upcoming culinary thriller Morte Cucina. The actor and director last collaborated two decades ago on the romantic crime film Last Life in the Universe (2003), […]
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China Box Office: ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ Opens to $25.9M During Quiet Weekend
Even a Hollywood hit with Chinese characteristics can’t seem to revive the U.S. studios’ diminished status at China’s box office. Dreamworks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 4 — the latest installment in one of China’s favorite long-running U.S. franchises, thanks to its Chinese culture-steeped story — opened to $14.7 million from Friday to Sunday, according to data […]
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James Zimmerman’s Acclaimed Nonfiction Book ‘The Peking Express’ Set for Movie Adaptation (Exclusive)
One of the world’s great true-life train heist stories is set to return to the big screen in China. Filmmaker DaMing Chen and veteran producer Chris Lee have partnered to develop a feature adaptation of James Zimmerman’s acclaimed nonfiction book, The Peking Express: The Bandits Who Stole a Train, Stunned the West, and Broke the […]
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First Look: Jacob Elordi’s Epic Romance Series ‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North’ Wraps Production in Australia
It’s a wrap for Jacob Elordi down under. The in-demand actor’s upcoming Amazon Prime Video miniseries The Narrow Road to the Deep North, in which he stars opposite Odessa Young in a sweeping love story spanning decades, has just completed production in New South Wales, Australia. Produced by Prime Video, Curio Pictures, and Sony Pictures […]
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‘Shogun’ Star Anna Sawai on What’s Next for Lady Mariko: “It All Just Gets Better and Better”
Japanese actress Anna Sawai’s career was already on a steady ascent in recent years, but FX’s epic samurai series Shōgun has undoubtedly become her breakthrough. Since appearing in Universal’s F9 (2021) in an ass-kicking supporting part, Sawai has co-starred in a string of big-budget series, including Apple TV+’s Pachinko (2022-) and the Godzilla spinoff Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023). Now, Shōgun has been hailed […]
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‘Anatomy of a Fall’ Scores Theatrical Release in China (Exclusive)
French legal drama Anatomy of a Fall‘s against-the-odds global box office run isn’t over just yet. The acclaimed courtroom thriller, which won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or in 2023 and the Oscar for best original screenplay last week, has secured a nationwide theatrical release date in China on March 29. Chinese specialty distributor Road […]
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‘Squid Game’ Star Oh Yeong-su Convicted Of Sexual Misconduct
South Korean actor Oh Yeong-su, star of Netflix’s 2021 smash-hit series Squid Game, has been convicted of sexual misconduct and given an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, for sexually harassing an actress in 2017. A district court judge in the city of Seongnam ruled Friday that the 79-year-old actor was guilty of inappropriately […]
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